A slightly acidic space for commentary, mixed with sweet undertones of optimism, and occasionally garnished with a cherry of insight.
Pample the Moose is the blog of Matthew Hayday, an associate professor in the History Department at the University of Guelph. The assorted musings here are his, and do not reflect the positions of the university.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Preserving equal marriage - how to contact your MP

Since Stephen Harper is apparently keeping his election promise to hold a "free" vote on re-opening the debate over same-sex marriage, I would encourage any supporters of same-sex marriage, or even those who think that it is time for the Canadian government to move on to more pressing issues, to contact their MP and let them know how you feel. As someone who has been legally married to my husband for two-and-a-half years, I personally find it abhorrent that MPs might vote to try to undo the legal rights (and obligations) that we have won.

Two useful websites that have been tracking this issue, and have handy links to your MPs email address are Canadians for Equal Marriage and MarriageVote.ca. MarriageVote has also been tracking the voting intentions of each MP, so you can find out whether your MP is in favour of same-sex marriage, strongly opposed, or waffling and could be convinced one way or the other. Here in my own neck of the woods, North Nova MP Bill Casey is apparently on the fence.

You can be certain that all MPs are being bombarded with anti-same-sex marriage emails from members of organizations like Focus on the Family. A quick personal email message appreciating their past support for same-sex marriage, or urging them to change their vote might be somewhat useful in changing a few minds.

2 Comments:

As a side note, this discussion came up on a discussion forum and someone who works for in an MP's office pleaded that if you know your MP does support it and will vote against reopening the debate, to not call since their office was getting flooded with calls to the point where no other work could be done.

So, harass the opponents maybe, but it's not really necessary to bug those in favour already.